Window, Mirror, Screen: An Installation Piece

I finally worked out all the kinks with my installation piece for Borrowing Light. From broken fluorescent bulbs and getting the right projector to locked doors with alarms and blown out circuits, it was a bit frustrating. But I got there in the end. When I started documenting the piece, I fell in love with individual pictures. So here are two parts of the installation in images and a video of the third part.

My goal was to use a bank of windows as a window, a mirror, and a screen.

This section of the windows is acting as a window. At night you see your own reflection in the window because it's light inside and dark outside. To reverse this, I added light outside so that the wall becomes the focal point of the window scene.

Outside, the window does the opposite, acting as a mirror and shielding the view of the interior. From this angle, the whole panel looks black.

If you get a bit closer to the window, you can make out what is going on both inside and outside--the bricks from outside sit on top of the interior image.

On one section of the windows I used a rear projection (projected from outside onto the back of the glass) to turn the windows into a screen from inside.

In this section of the installation I enhanced the reflective quality of the windows by adding more light. Normally the windows are already reflective indoors, but they are even more effective with the added lights.

From outside there is a very clear view of the interior.

605 TV Mapping

Until I develop something to do with my little TV Maps (possible summer installation?), I'm putting them on a blog. Check it out.

This or That?

So I want to upgrade my SLR, but I'm not sure how crazy I want to go. This is the debate right now. I know these cameras (and their prices) are really different, but there are reasons I'm drawn to each one. I'll start talking about my current camera and then move up in price/features. Opinions please!


This is the Olympus EVOLT E-500, my current camera.

Stats/Info:
8.0 Megapixels
No video at all
2.5" LCD Monitor
2.5 fps continuous shooting
100-400 ISO
Kit with 14-45mm & 40-150mm lenses ~$625




This is the Nikon D5000.

Stats/Info:
12.3 Megapixels
720p HD Video
Only 5 min/2GB length vids
24 fps video
2.7" Vari-angle monitor
100-6400 ISO
GPS Geo-tagging
~4 fps continuous shooting
Quiet Mode
Kit with 18-55mm lens ~$525-$575




This is the Nikon D90.

Stats/Info:
12.3 Megapixels
720p HD Video
Only 5min/2GB length vids
Overheats after an hour of video
3" LCD Monitor
100-6400ISO
~4.5 fps continuous shooting
Body only ~$775


This was made with a Nikon D90.




And this is the Canon EOS 7D.

Stats/Info:
18.0 Megapixels
1080p HD Video
Manual video exposure control
Selectable frame rates
100% field of view display
3" LCD Monitor
100-6400 ISO
8.0 fps continuous shooting
Waterproof
Kit with 28-135mm lens ~$1800

Hecq Vs Exillion - Spheres Of Fury from Tim.Chris.Film on Vimeo.

Stop motion made with a Canon EOS 7D.


Made with a 7D.



The appeal of the 7D is that it would be investing in a video camera and an SLR at the same time, which is pretty legit. I mean, if I wanted to go all the way with that concept I might buy the Canon 5D Mark II (they filmed the latest season of House with it!), except the 7D has a better fps continuous shooting rate (and I want to do some stop motion). Also the Mark II price gives me a heart attack ($2500 for the body). Selling my current camera will only make me a couple hundred bucks. The D5000 is appealing because the price is far more reasonable and it's still got HD video (just with a lot more drawbacks). The D90 is a step up from that, but still more reasonable in pricing. Ahhhhhh.

So what do I do?

P.S. Look at all this stuff...

Friday Commute

Friday Commute from Laura Thompson on Vimeo.

Detroit Connections Final Project

0D Video I Never Posted

Untitled from Laura Thompson on Vimeo.

It's here! The minimalist video I never put online from my time in the Netherlands. If you go back in the posts you can read about it...it's meant to play on a small screen on loop as a very intimate piece. Enjoy!

A Few Favorite TV Moments

Ann Arbor Film Festival

Black Rain by Semiconductor
Illuminations of the Beyond



#37, Interview with Joost Rekveld, Part 1
Illuminations of the Beyond


#37, Interview with Joost Rekveld, Part 2
Illuminations of the Beyond

Twightlight Spirit by Jodie Mack
Music Video Showcase

Anonanimal by Lisa Barcy (Andrew Bird, Noble Beast)
Music Video Showcase



Sour 'Hibi No Neiro' (Tone of Everyday)
by Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Magico Nakamura, & Masayoshi Nakamura
Music Video Showcase



Gary War "Highspeed Drift" by Jacqueline Castel
Music Video Showcase

Blonde Redhead Meets Gainsbourg by Jérome Schlomoff
Music Video Showcase



Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavi, Yuval, & Merav Nathan
Music Video Showcase



Forest by Allison Schulnik (Grizzly Bear's "Ready, Able")
Music Video Showcase



The Black Dog's Progress by Stephen Irwin
This Animated Life



Horn Dog by Bill Plympton
This Animated Life



Mecanismo Olvidador by Juan Camilo González
This Animated Life



Please Say Something by Bill O'Reilly
This Animated Life

Popsong Living

My friend Eric who goes to UMass is starting a zine called "Popsong Living" and he asked me to submit some stuff. I gave him two of my poems and I'm really excited about it. I think I'm going to work on some visual stuff as well for another issue. I love this kind of thing!

Borrowing Light: Surfaces

I have quite a few posts up about a collaborative piece I'm doing in Borrowing Light. Check them out at our class blog. Feel free to leave comments either there or here, they're always appreciated (aka I love you Maggie & Lucy). I think this has been a good collaboration and I'm excited to see where it takes us over the weekend!

Borrowing Lightbulbs

Time Mapping: Raw TV Footage

I am uploading some of my raw footage of the television in my living room. I plan to work with each clip as a separate entity. I will experiment with re-filming it and seeing how the sound and video changes...

Precedents for Strike

1. Yoko Ono-Match Piece, 1965

This piece Yoko Ono did with Fluxus relates very directly to mine because we use the same medium (video) to look at the striking and burning of a match. I would say that Yoko Ono's piece is far more minimalistic in its exploration while mine takes on a spatial component and the surrounding darkness, which I personally think is an important part of the human component tied to matches.




2. Yaacov Agam-Fiat Lux, 1967

Yaccov Agam likes to work with motion, sound and light. This piece is a lightbulb that turns on because of sound. I feel like the setting and singular light source relates to my piece. Matches produce a sound when lit and Agam is associating light with a sound as well as a space. I found this piece in the Light Art from Artificial Light book I checked out from the Dude.



3. Seth Riskin-Light Dances

Seth Riskin uses dance and light to show space in his works. His work is as much about the darkness as it is about the light source and human interaction. I am actually really excited that I discovered him because his artist statement (quoted below) reveals that we think in similar ways about light and space and movement.







"My first impulse as an artist was to become space. I wanted to bring viewers inside the movement experience, into contact with the numinous dimensions of space. Light allows me to realize this artistic vision.

In the Light Dance performances, light carries the subjective experience of movement beyond the limits of my body. Light Dance is a transposition of the “dance” from the body to the boundaries of the room. In silent, space-defining performances, light effects extend from my body. I “sculpt” space; precise body movements articulate fluid architectures of light, encompassing viewers with the “dance”.

Fundamental tenets of the Light Dance thesis include the concept that inner light and physical light are one, and that an experience of light can overcome the experience of body.

The silence of Light Dance I experience as wholeness. Inspired by a sense of the unlimited, I was led to light as a metaphor for deep knowing, dissolving borders between the body and space, the human spirit and material, the performer and viewer. I understand silence as I do darkness: not void, but whole, the fullest knowing of light, rather than its absence, that may be infinitely articulated and approached through art."


4. Plato's Allegory of the Cave

In his allegory Plato describes people chained to the wall in a cave. Behind them a fire burns and there are puppeteers making shadows. The people fear the shadows because they don't see what causes them. This is all they know of as reality.

I think this relates to my piece because the only light comes from the matches, which create shadows and reveal the world to the performer and audience at the same time. The performer and the camera become puppeteers, deciding what the viewer gets to see within the space at any given moment. Video uses a singular perspective, creating the only reality of my basement that the audience can know.




5. 15th Century Projector-Johannes de Fontana

The projector was initially invented in 1420 by Johannes de Fontana. He drew a picture (seen below) of a monk holding a lantern with a translucent window containing the image of a devil. Most of the initial projections were frightening and related to hell. I think the darkness and flickering shadows of candles and match light can take on that ambiance and they project shadows into a space, even if they are soft and out of focus (which is what Fontana's image would have looked like since his projector didn't have a lens).

Collaborations

I am becoming more and more excited and interested in collaborating with other people. Here are some of the collaborations of my past, present and future...


PAST

Dance Day 2006
Music by Ben Babbit
Choreography by Laura Thompson

Ben and I collaborated for one other dance during the summer of 2008. That was for my company, Patchwork City Dance, and it isn't on the internet at the moment.

PRESENT

This weekend I am shooting and editing One Day Runway, a Basement Arts show that is free to the public. It's a spoof of Project Runway and should be a lot of fun. The designers have 24 hours to complete their challenge and the runway show will be live right after the video airs at 11pm in Studio One in the Walgreen Drama Center on North Campus.

FUTURE

I may collaborate with a fellow student in my light course to do something with small holes people can look through, projections, and light. Who knows. He's interested in boxes and lights in liquids and I'm interested in the transitory flickering of matches, video, and odd spatial installations.

My friend Josh of Our Brother the Native just mentioned something about dance and a music video this summer.

I'm hoping to collaborate with an actor/performance artist in my Creative Writing class. He is way out there and so in tune with himself.

My friend Ali has been writing a lot of screenplays and has a ton of ideas. We should really get together.

Strike: Update

This is my latest update of Strike, a piece about source light. I found that matches only exist within the context of humans because we are the only people who use them and are capable of striking them. A match sitting on its own is not a source of any light. Someone has to act upon it, strike it.

This is a collage of three different "situations" using matches. I am still tweaking the editing and coloring. My goal is to get rid of the boxes in the background so light comes from the pitch black of the whole screen as opposed to a small frame. I was told that people's outfits are distracting, but I was very interested in giving very few directions to the people involved so that it was a purer form of interaction. I don't think I want to change that thought of it.

Also, my friend Max Shults has offered to write music, which would maintain the striking match sounds but add another layer to the piece.

Strike from Laura Thompson on Vimeo.

Television Maps

I have taken a new direction through many failures and a change of heart. I have become very interested in low quality video this year. The sheer volume of low quality video out there in the world vastly outweighs the HD, which is an odd phenomenon considering the image quality of existing cameras and how inexpensive HD has become for consumers. Last semester I made a video of television feedback by filming it with a crappy cell phone camera and then re-filming that video about 60 times. I took the change in pitch and images and created a composition out of it (see video below).

My roommates watch a lot of TV so I am going to start mapping what they're watching by filming it with a portable video camera I got cheaply. I may also explore filming some epic moments in television history (man landing on the moon, first ten minutes of MTV...I don't know).

I have some crazy plan in my mind that I am going to combine this with Jitter (Max/MSP/Jitter) because I've been teaching myself how to use it and I think it would be a good thing to incorporate into my learning experience. Right now the thought is that there would be a television or a series of televisions that would show different pieces of the map. When someone physically changes the channel of the TV, the clip would change.

I could edit these piece of the map--each as a separate entity that is composed to be a part of the whole--or I could let MSP & Jitter do some of the manipulation work for me by using data and the drunk or random functions. More video data to come...

Surfacing from Laura Thompson on Vimeo.

I'm sorry I haven't said anything in a while. Life sometimes consists of thinking and quietly talking with other people about it before you can make anything concrete. Also, two of my three studio classes have their own blogs where I'm posting and the third is working with kids in Detroit so there really isn't much to physically show that's my own at the moment. That is why I'm linking this blog to my class blogs.

Time Mapping
Borrowing Light

Strike from Laura Thompson on Vimeo.

Borrowing Light Sketch

Sketchbooks are not my thing.

How do you sketch when you think in motion?

This has been my dilemma for quite some time. I don't think in shapes or how something is built (well sometimes I do but then it's just a material study because all of my work seems to have an idea...and even then I think about how it moves or how I move). I think about how I move when I build it, see it, experience it, perform it. I think about how the material(s) feel in my hands.

I think I am going to start making some "sketches" that are what my body parts are doing when I make something. So if I was working with my hands I would use a different color for each hand and progressively draw what they were doing...pulling tape, cutting, shaping. This could be very interesting...

I want to see this once I'm done with the book.

Today was a good day for my mailbox.

My book on synesthesia came in the mail today! I also got Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson because I loved the short story we read from it in class last week. Ancient Evenings is still missing...I'm worried about it.

Also, I got my letter, FINALLY. Now I have to write back.

Sun Exposures (Borrowing Light)

(Button Snow)

(Crumpled)

(Rocks in the Rain III)

(Rocks in the Rain II)

(Rocks in the Rain I)

(Crumpled vellum in the rain)

(One week indoors)

Shoes Hanging from Power Lines, Pt. II

Wikipedia has an entire article on shoes hanging from power lines. I have now heard many different theories about why/how the shoes got there:
1. Gangs marking territories
2. To mark places where drugs can be bought
3. To let everyone know you got laid for the first time
4. As a means of bullying or playing a prank
5. As a form of urban graffiti
6. Because we are a throw away culture

I am starting to think that taking them down would be destruction of a map and Maggie pointed out to me that they are probably disgusting inside from all of the years of being exposed to the weather. Maybe I will do a performance by adding my broken down Converse sneakers to the map...

Thylias clears everything up in your head when you talk to her one on one and yet makes the world even more infinite at the same time. Josh called her a genius and he was not crazy in saying that. The way she speaks and how excited and open she is to the entire world is the most beautiful thing I've heard.

Our conversation floated from a comment Josh made about not wanting the things he works on to end up in his mom's basement. We were talking about the constant need to make things and the problem of finding a place to put them once they floated back into your life from exhibitions. This lead to a comment about how we're expected to make something tangible for art class even if we aren't ready in our own personal process (which was a relief to hear straight from a professor's mouth).

We talked about digital work not taking up much space. I have my third hard drive (I got it for xmas, it's 1 TB) and Thylias has about 25 (she recommended the Bus Driven G Technology brand). Then she told me a story of the time she was working on the BEST thing she'd ever made and her hard drive crashed. She lots 170GB of work and never remade it. She believes you always have to be willing to let go of what you're working on because you never know when you're going to lose it.

Also in our conversation was the documentary Mac Heads which lead to a man with a Mac museum (as seen in preview) and the Atari in my basement where all the stuff is piling up from my family.




Somewhere in there was a long discussion about choreography (and in my head I realized that's why I like editing video so much). This whole conversation was quiet and made tons of sense. It ended and I felt so empowered and excited about new ideas and doing a million things.

I have also decided I really want to choreograph to "Digital" by Joy Division

Shoes Hanging From Power Lines

Is there a way to get all the shoes down from all the power lines in Ann Arbor? I see myself collecting them for some kind of performance...

Why hasn't anyone taken them down before now? What if I had a really tall ladder...is it dangerous? I'd just cut the laces and rescue them!

How long has it been since those shoes walked anywhere? Who did they belong to? Why/how did they end up on that particular power line?

Maybe I should map the shoes...

Sunrise and Sunset Timetable for Ann Arbor, MI

See times here.

The sun is going to start rising earlier and earlier now, but it's still setting at around 5:30pm. I thought that Iceland's 4 hours days were crazy short, but ours are between 9-10 hrs this time of year, which means it's mostly dark. How depressing.

Dictionary & Thesaurus

foot·step (ftstp)
n.
1.
a. A step with the foot.
b. The sound of a foot stepping. Also called footfall.

2. The distance covered by a step: a footstep away.

3. See footprint.

4. A step on which to go up or down.

Idiom:
follow in (someone's) footsteps
To carry on the behavior, work, or tradition of.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


footstep [ˈfʊtˌstɛp]
n
1. the action of taking a step in walking
2. the sound made by stepping or walking
3. the distance covered with a step; pace
4. a footmark
5. a single stair; step
6. to continue the tradition or example of another

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 6th Edition 2003. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms


Noun 1. footstep
footstep - the sound of a step of someone walking; "he heard footsteps on the porch"

footfall, step
sound - the sudden occurrence of an audible event; "the sound awakened them"
tramp - a heavy footfall; "the tramp of military boots"

2. footstep - the act of taking a step in walking
step - the act of changing location by raising the foot and setting it down; "he walked with unsteady steps"

3. footstepfootstep - the distance covered by a step; "he stepped off ten paces from the old tree and began to dig"
pace, step, stride
indefinite quantity - an estimated quantity

Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2008 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.


footstep
noun
1. step, tread, footfall I heard footsteps outside.
2. footprint, mark, track, trace, outline, imprint, indentation, footmark people's footsteps in the snow

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Google Search: Footsteps

Footsteps is "a non-profit organization dedicated to providing educational, vocational, and emotional support to those seeking to enter or explore a world beyond the insular, ultra-religious environments in which they were raised."
Footprints in the Sand is a well known religious poem about a person reflecting on their relationship with God throughout their life.
Footsteps of Reston is a shoe store that sells running shoes in Virginia. They appear to take it very seriously as there is a running track in the store.
Footsteps Magazine celebrates African American heritage. Their last issue was published in May 2006.
Footsteps is a made-for-TV Candace Bergen film from 2003.
Footsteps is a travel weblog.
Pearl Jam has a song called "Footsteps" that they have played live 78 times beginning in 1992.




Steve Lawrence-"Footsteps" (Doo Wop)

Footsteps Video on Flickr
In English we often say that you are following in someone's footsteps.

Time Mapping

So I'm taking Time Mapping this semester and I'm already struggling with the balance between doing something physical and just thinking. I've become a thinker since I went abroad and I spend a lot of time reflecting on a myriad of things that people say or even just what happens in my life from day to day. It makes me feel unproductive, but that isn't true at all when I think about it. Creative Writing is also a good reason for me to think. What should I write about? There is so much in my life to draw from. Anyway, my head has gotten stuck in a rut about footsteps and I intend to break that today by taking a little break from thinking about it. Breaks of that sort are always needed. We can't do the same thing over and over and expect life to be exciting and productive. Shake it up!

Matthew Barney

Matthew Barney is an American filmmaker, performance artist, and sculptor who created the well-known, and much talked about, Cremaster Cycle:



Last night I got the chance to hear him speak at the DIA about some of his new work. His inspiration was Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer, a story that details the stages of death a person enters according to Ancient Egyptian beliefs. He sees the story in seven distinct acts, the first of which was performed in Los Angeles. Now Barney is working in Detroit. He began by filming a preface that was inspired by Ancient Evenings as well as the work of James Lee Byars, a Detroit artist, and Harry Houdini who's first jump was off a bridge in Detroit.

Just to hear about what works inspired such an amazing artist and how those inspirations came together was really interesting because I think most people pull ideas from a lot of places and he uses not only interesting inspiration, but he's very good at articulating his thoughts on different subjects. I also think the reason his work is so elusive is because he finds inspiration in obscure things of which most people are unaware. If anything, I am inspired to dig deeper, read more, and find new topics that aren't already on the surface of society today.

Also, I ordered Ancient Evenings on a whim when I got home last night because I'm going to read it for my Creative Writing class. Apparently Mailer is one of the great modern American writers (and yet I've never read any of his work). The book took him almost ten years to write and got many negative reviews, but from the what I've read, it's very descriptive, interesting, and different. I'm ready to read something completely new. I just can't wait for it to get here...

Winter 2010

So I've been to all of my classes once now and I'm really excited. I will post some of my first thoughts, artist notes, and sketches soon. I have to run to Time Mapping right now, but first I want to drink my Pomegranate Blueberry V8. Yes, you needed to know that.